Personal rating: 8/10DLC: Worth it. They add more to the game with new equipment and quests. The Weapon Bundle gives a nice helping hand for beginners, but NOT overpowered stuff.

First thoughts on Kingdoms of Amalur

I bought Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning on a 70% Sale and left the game while I played other things and wasn't feeling like giving it a try yet. I wasn't expecting anything spectacular, something Torchlight-Diablo-esque perhaps.

Turned out I was wrong.

The gameplay

Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning has a moderately paced action packed battle where you can roll (or blink if you're a Sorcery user) to dodge and block or parry incoming attacks as long as you have the reflexes.

Every type of weapon feels unique and finding one that suits you the best might be a decisive point when you're aiming for a class (or rather, destiny). From swords to scepters, hammer to staves, bows to daggers and even chakrams, nothing is useless here. It may take some getting use to, but every weapon has its charm, its pros and cons. Every weapon has its gimmick and is impressive how different they feel, most of times a different type of weapon requires a different approach in combat.

The camera while fighting is somewhat weird, not unbearable but it can get more in your way than the enemies themselves sometimes. The game will focus on whatever hit you and sometimes if the enemy is past behind you the camera may follow him instead of keeping focus on the one you are trying to kill. This show how important is to have a lock-on option in games with such combat system.

Terminate with extreme prejudice

One of the most memorable features of Kingdoms of Amalur is something introduced early for you: Fateshift. Fateshift is the usual "super mode" you activate once you gauge is completely filled.

Why is it so memorable? The finishing moves, oh dear, the finishing moves.

Few games make you feel so powerful like Kingdoms of Amalur does. When you see the first Fateshift finisher, which probably will be on a creature that is times bigger than you, you'll feel like you are unstoppable. And then you'll do it on a human sized enemy and it'll just scream OVERKILL. Nevertheless you probably won't be saving Fateshift too much because you'll want to see every last of the finisher moves, they are THAT awesome.

Class building is fun, having unlimited re-specs (for a price) is better

The game offers a lot of variety with classes and mix-ups every possible combination and you can build your character as you see fit, and if you don't like it you can re-spec as many times as you want. But keep in mind the re-specs WILL get pricey fairly quick (after the 4th re-spec you'll notice). While gold may be easy to come later on, at the beginning it surely isn't.

The usual combat approach

Want to get in the face of enemy and take everything head on with heavy armor and huge melee weapons? Might is your path.

Maybe you like to kill enemies at a safe distance with flashy spells? Sorcery it is then.

Or do you prefer backstabs and bows? Finesse is perfect for you.

However...

Might, Finesse or Sorcery? Why choose only one?

Really. Why should you become just a brutish Warrior? Why become a squishy Archer/Assassin? Why become a frail Wizard? Why when you can become a Warrior with magic, an Archer that's as deadly at long range as it is up close, or a Wizard that can use sneaky tricks if magic fails him.

Not satisfied? Mix EVERYTHING. Become an Universalist.

The best of Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning is how it is possible to mix up EVERY class in the game. There are no boundaries in this game: you can mix Warrior, Thief and Wizard in any way you find better, nothing is stopping you. Doing this will often give you amusing results.

Of course that "pure breed" classes will have its unique advantages and some powers that only they can access, but mixed classes often have their own bonuses that, with the right gear, will more than make up for those last skills you can't afford.

Still about class building

One of the aspects I like the most in Kingdoms of Amalur: the complete LACK of status points. No Strenght, no Dexterity, no Intelligence to worry about, no "status puzzle" of sorts, just skill points that should be invested in the three skill three which will grant different amounts of HP and MP.

A world to explore, quests to do

From simple quests like "Kill this" to "Bring me that" to "Deliver this" to "Keep me alive" to "Save the damn world", you'll have your hands full everywhere you go.

There are long questlines from specific factions that will grant you a special reward in the end. But with a twist: most of times you have the option to join the "hero" or the "villain" (opinions may vary) of said questline, and whoever you take the side will grant a different, permanent bonus. Some choices may have a deep impact in your game.

Colorful, "brightful" and beautiful

I normally avoid talking about graphics since opinions about it are arbitrary, but like Just Cause 2, Kingdoms of Amalur has incredible graphics and effects even on its lowest setting.

Spell effects are impressive and for once the often overlooked warriors and thieves gains extremely flashy and beautiful skills and attacks to watch, which I must say, is immensely refreshing to see.

Complaints, because though great, the game is very far from perfect

First, look at any review from Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning and you'll find out that everyone says the game is too easy even on Hard. They are not exaggerating, if you pick a Might class and become a tank it won't be long until you realize enemies are barely doing a scratch on you and only the most dangerous, most powerful enemies will pose a threat to you. On the other hand playing as Finesse and Sorcery characters will require care and proper dodge/parry skills as while they can dish, they can't take as well.

Indoor scenarios will seem repetitive after a while, especially cave and castle/fortresses ones, they may have different coloring, but that's about it. To make this worse the game has a tendency to grow quiet, musicless, on these areas.

Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning has a decent repertory of enemies, but they are not enough. You'll encounter the same kind of enemies in several different areas from the start to the end of the game, some of the human opponents are mere re-skins of other enemies and there are even bosses who are simply overpowered enemies you'll find around, maybe with a gimmick or two, but that's about it.

The game also suffers with a problem that will show up for completionists: doing all sidequests will make you level up faster and you might end up reaching the level cap even before you travel to the last country (which is big on its own accord) which can easily frustrate people.

Another common complaint is how forgettable the main storyline is. Side quests are much more enjoyable and have many more noteworthy characters with more interesting back stories that most characters from the main story barely seems to have at all.

Wrapping up

Even with its flaws and problems Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning is a memorable game with a lot of nice characters, nice combat system and interesting quests with a maybe not-so-great main story, but it never fails to deliver what intends to.

In the end the saddest thing is that the developer (Big Huge Games) bankrupted and we will never get newer stuff for the game like spears or even bug fixes or a new level cap. And a sequel probably will never come to a light either.

2,185 people found this review helpful1 person found this review funny

Recommended

161.2 hrs on record

Posted: November 27, 2013

Oh boy, this game.

Well, it's fun, the combat is very fast paced and fun, you can do a lot of moves with you skills and magic and abilities, you can combine them or charge them for a more powerful attack.

This game is HUGE, the map is VERY HUGE, there is a lot of dungeons and there is like 300 or 400 side quests to be done, but it is very unlikely that you will want to do every single one, you see, some of them, some of the quests are like the generic MMO quests (grab question with NPC > kill x things > collect x things > go back to NPC), but there is a lot of side quests very well done and with a nice story.

Play this game on HARD, because even on HARD it will be kinda easy, seriously, you will only face a challenge if you decide to fight more than 6 enemies (of your LVL - the ones with the name in YELLOW) at once or an enemy with an ORANGE or RED name.

There is a lot of things to say about this game, but let me give you some tips that won't ruin your fun.

If you want to kill enemies with one or two hits, pick BLACKSMITH and JEWELCRAFTING skill to level up, you will be able to craft your own gear, but you can make some GODLY gear, like, you can gain +60% DMG with FIRE DMG and LIFE LEECH and a insane amount of ARMOR, you will never die, really, it will look like GOD MODE. If you wanna some challenge in the fights and if you wanna use the nice sets and unique gear that you will find in the game (the uniques and set items are way more nice than the crafted ones, they are very stylish and have some nice stats and their own lore/description, but they don't have stats so powerful like the crafted gear), don't level up BLACKSMITHING, go for JEWELCRAFTING (to sell the jewels) and MERCANTILE so you can make a lot of money (i end up with 12 millions GOLD and wasn't even in the end of the game, i had like 25 hours or more till the final boss).

Try to acquire the DLCs, Ded Kel and Teeth of Naros, they are very nice and the Ded Kel can grant you some nice things, like, you can acquire the best items for crafting (the FLAWLESS components, they grant insane stats for crafted gear) and a lot of uniques and set items (set gear) for FREE (the components are not free, but the gear that one NPC search for you is free), a NPC will get them for you.

Choose well the color of the eye of your character, you won't be able to change this after, only hair and jewels and tattoos once you gain your own house (there is like 3 or 4 houses only for your character in the game).

Try to do all the faction quests, they give you nice rewards and you end up meeting new NPCs and enjoying the stories.

Try to level up the DETECT HIDDEN skill, it will help you a lot. Don't bother, seriously, don't bother with LOCKPICKING and PERSUASION (PERSUASION can be nice if you really want some more dialogues, but it is not necessary), LOCKPICKING is useless, really, you will find some hard chests to lockpick, but after 3 or 4 lockpicks (and you will find and will be able to afford a lot of those lockpicks) you will end up opening the chests without problem. Try to level up DISPELLING, it will help you on magic chests and will prevent you for being cursed (curses can't be removed without a HEALER, and you will be forced to travel to a city or village to lift the curse, otherwise you can continue exploring, but some curses can make your character very vulnerable, very weak).

Try to read all the books you find, really, they can give you a nice understanding of the lore and they have some very interesting information, also, some of them are hilarious.

***If you want more challenge, you can try to use the YSA mod, it is a mod to be used with the Cheat Engine program, it changes the game to be way more challenging, i've never used but a lot of people said that it is very well done and you can choose what to use (like, you can disable the way your character receives damage [with the mod your character receives 2x or 3x more damage from the enemies] or the XP gain [experience is reduced by default with the mod]). ***

There is lot of more i would like to say, but i don't remember everything now. I hope this review help you.

FIRST OFF: I had no internet for close to a week, so I played this and my hours on steam does not reflect the time I've actually spent on this game. As of writing this, I actually have close to 46 hours in game, not including the time I spent between 2012 and 2014 when I was playing this on PS3. Yeah, I spent around 20 hours playing this game over the space of 4 or so days, outside my studies. I have lost sleep to this game, I have fallen asleep playing the game and 10/10 I would do all that again.

Get this game. You get 60-90 hours of gameplay for the price. Few single player games can say that.

The good

Massive game world, even without the DLCsBright and colourful environments, jungles, deserts, forests etcAwesome combat and spell effectsGreat combat/magic specialisationLoads quickly, runs fastHundreds of questsExcellent craftingCrafting materials don't count as inventory itemsBetter than reasonable musicLots of background lore and information80+ hours of gameplay with the DLCsIt's an addictive game, you want to keep going and see what's nextLoot out the wazoo

The bad

Camera goes all screwy during combatCan't look fully up or downSome very average dungeon designs, lots of near-identical looking placesLots of backtrackingLots of step and fetch it/fedex type questsSome of the voice acting is averageRNG at work with chests and loot drops in general. Get epic loot in easy chests, get trash in very hard chests etcThere's arguably too much loot in the game, but that's a minor complaint

KoA: Reconing is a fantastic, underrated 3rd person, open world RPG. The game features an excellent plot, huge world, combined with truly customizable character classes. For those of you who don't know the story behind this game's development, it was founded by Curt Schilling (former MLB pitcher) who was a fan of games when he wasn't playing baseball. He sunk a ton of his own money into trying to make this game (and franchise) great but in the end it was a bit too ambitious for a startup company and they went bankrupt after releasing the game. What does this all mean? Well, it means the game has AAA quality production values but is often overlooked. In short, it's a hidden gem that most likely will never get a sequel, but is a really well done game.

The game's plot and setting are quite good overall. As part of the world building, bestselling fantasy author RA Salvatore (the creator of Drizzt) wrote over 1000 pages of plot and backstory to make this world come alive. The result is not your typical generic fantasy world, but a world with a rich history that isn't just the same old elves and orcs all over again. I enjoyed the plot and setting of the game. The main plot reveals rather slowly, but the last few chapters of the main plot are quite interesting. Of course, there are TONS of sidequests and 4 full factions to explore as well, as well as two full expansions that are worth getting.

Graphically, the world is very beautiful and some of the cities and outdoor settings are quite unique. My favorite was the city of Ysa, which was built into the trees. It's hard to get a sense of the game's graphics due to the 3rd person nature of the game. Just looking at screenshots doesn't do it justice because your character is always standing in the middle of the screen, but when you can pan the camera around and explore the worlds, it's beautiful. Level design is also very solid. There's tons of areas to explore, lots of secrets, and the world map and quest system keeps you from getting lost. My one complaint about the level design is that your character cannot jump in most places, but can only jump from certain spots. The game's soundtrack is memorable and sound effects are also high quality, as to be expected.

Combat is the main part of the game and luckily, it's very fun. Unlike most RPGs, you truly are free to design a character that is exactly how you want to play. You're not penalized for being a hybrid character, in fact you can prettymuch use whatever main and secondary weapons you like along with fighting styles, stealth, and magic skills. Want to play a mage that wears robes and fights with a big hammer? Sure, there's spells to boost your armor, heal, and a summons to help distract enemies in combat. Want to play a stealthy assassin that uses magery to stun from afar. Go for it! You can also play a pure fighter, mage, or rogue and enjoy the game that way as well. It's easy to respec your character when you want to try something different. There's also a deep crafting system for potions, armor, and magic gems that you can get into or completely ignore. The game also keeps the crafting skills separate from the combat skills, so you're not forced into going into blacksmithy as a warrior or gemcrafting as a mage, for instance.

Fighting enemies themselves is quite fun. Most regular enemies are pretty easy to destroy, so your character feels quite powerful. Luckily, the boss fights can be pretty difficult and are very epic! Be prepared to mow over most weak enemies and have some challenges with the various boss fights.

The game features achievements as well and all of them work. You can 100% the game in about 70ish hours, in one playthrough. Luckily, there's a lack of super grindy achievements and a lot of them are fun to get. You'll need both expansions to 100% the game, but I would highly recommend both expansions as well. The bundle for the game goes on sale quite often, so pick up the deluxe edition!

There are a few negatives that I must mention. The number 1 complaint about this game is that it is too easy. If you do every faction, sidequest, and area in the main game and both expansions, you will reach the level cap far before the end of the plot. To remedy this, I recommend playing the game on hard mode. It does not make the game too difficult, it merely balances it out to be about the average difficulty for most games. Even if you are someone who normally plays games on normal or even easy mode, I highly recommend playing on hard mode so that it's simply not a pushover. I ended up playing the game for about 13 hours on medium difficulty before deciding it was too easy and starting over. Just play it on hard to begin with. There's also an achievment for beating the game on hard mode and if you find the game to be too challenging, you can always just level up or even lower the difficulty if you have to.

The game does feature a huge amount of optional sidequests along with 4 factions. If you do every optional sidequest and kill every enemy that crosses your path, you will be overleveled before the end. Therefore, I recommend doing the main plot, all 4 factions, both DLC and a just a few sidequests. Doing this will keep the game challenging to the end of the main story. Also, after the main story ends you are still free to continue the game and play all of those sidequests. The game actually has so much content that you could probably replay a second time doing only sidequests and level up to max. It is also very easy to outmanuver enemies and run past them, which cuts down on the tedium of killing monsters that respawn after a day or two. Another complaint I had was that the game tends to reuse enemy graphics quite a bit. The enemies are well animated, but the game could use a bit more variety. Finally, the last few areas of the game are pretty difficult and sort of turn into a potion swilling festival.

However, despite these drawbacks, the game is extremely solid overall and highly recommended. If you enjoy open world style games, this is certainly one to pickup and play. It has a detailed plot, a well developed world, beautiful graphics, fun combat, epic and challenging bosses, a complex but optional crafting system, truly customizable classes, a variety of powerful weapon choices, and is a huge kingdom to explore for many hours. Just play on hard mode and don't do every sidequest and you're sure to enjoy this hidden gem of a 3rd person rpg! If you enjoyed Skyrim, chances are you will like this game. I would even go as far to say that the combat and boss battles are better in KoA! Give this game a chance and you'll be glad you did.

Thanks Ellen. I'm 30 hours in and I still think I'm at the beginning of this game.

I gives off a strong World of Warcraft vibe to me, someone who never got past the demo account of WoW.

Pro:* A lot of bang for your bucks, seriously* Nice visuals, very bright and saturated colours. A bit comic-esque, like WoW.* Plenty of Lore. Both in audio and written form.* Combat mechanics is fluid and fun. Ambushing, rolling, doging, shooting arrows while using magic, it's all there.* Leveling* Crafting* Looting

Con:* A lot of bang for your bucks, seriously if you get the DLCs and think of completing them I'd estimate that you'll spend at least 100 hours.* The EA Account part is a bit irritating, but you can simply close the window and do not need to create an account. It still says 'Connecting to EA-Servers' every startup ....

The ultimate hidden Gem and one you should buy faster than reading this, As soon as you start the game you are going to fall in love with the art style and how easy and user friendly the controls are. I put around 50 hours into the console version and loved it so much I got in on PC as well, It really is an amazing game and one everyone should play.

This is one of the best RPG I've ever played with a few minor problems.

First the graphics are really pretty good.

The story line tells an interesting story.

One of the best things is the way it alllows you, at the start, to set up the character you want to play. Most RPG games will let you do this, but this one has a really nice set up to let you do this with either male or female. Also, you aren't done there you can change some of those settings like hair style & color, and other things as you work your way thru the game.

I also really like the way my X-Box 360 controller worked with this game. In a lot of games, you find yourself having to reset all the buttons etc so you could use them. I didn't have that problem here. The settings are well done and once you get used to the settings they are easy to use. I also noted that dodging was REALLY dodging and in line with what you did with the controller. If you wanted to hit someone and then turn quickly to shoot at some one else you could and your character would carry out that action, not pause or do something you didn't expect. Also the action was smooth too and walking or running were set up right and you could explore easily and not be forced to run all the time. The other good thing I noted was the attention to menus when using the X-Box 360 controller. These were set to mirror either a KB/mouse or controller when showing what button or key did what. The only thing I noticed, like most newer games, it can switch on you if you are using the controller and switch to the mouse to do select a menu option. (I didn't have any trouble with it myself.)

Game play was overall very nice. There are a lot of side quests and you can spent a large amount of time roaming around and there are a few that can be failed if you're not careful.

Like all good games there are some things that aren't so great.

The leveling up system only goes to level 40 and you don't really get to use the many skills that you can get, but even this has some good points. You get a number of ways to get you skills and can decided how to set up the talents your character will specialize in, even if you end at 40 with no where to go. This does have some interesting side effects like having your character being a bit over powering as you revisit certain early areas again .

Overall, I was very impressed by this game and liked it very much. I can heartily recommend this game and think you will find in very intertaining to play.